Introduction - The Beauty Of Rocks

Since I was a child, I've been interested in beautiful artistic, but also natural, or close to natural things. This has led me to painting, sculpting, handmade soap, natural bath/body products, and now... the most basic of all things... ROCKS!!!

I think everyone probably has a memory of skipping stones across the water, or walking along a beach or river and picking up oddly colored stones. Girls in particular are fascinated with shiny and colorful things anyway, and as children, we always start out with the wonder of the natural world around us. I loved picking up rocks, but always ended up tossing them eventually because I didn't know what to do with them.

Recently, I took another look at rocks, and realized how truly remarkable they are! Not just rocks, but what is INSIDE the rocks. There can be art, from entire realized landscapes to the finest abstracts, painted by nature, buried inside each and every rock! The amazing part is that they are ALL millions of years old!
I decided to start this blog to share what I've learned, and give people who never realized what they are missing right under their feet another view of the world we all share! This blog approaches rocks from an artistic perspective and not a scientific one. I'm not going to cover rock origins and types other than the ones that I'm collecting and appeal to me personally, so there will be gaps in the types of rocks you can collect. I just hope to introduce the amazing beauty of rocks to people who had not looked at them that way before.

My plan is to write an illustrated blog on each rock 'category' based on the way I collect them. These are the sections I plan to cover:

I want to thank the people on my favorite forum, RTH, without who's help, advice and information I would never have gotten as far into this hobby as I have. Many of my pieces came from trades and purchases I've made from members there, and I have noted who on the particular photos where I can. If you develop an interest in rocks too, register and get started, it's a great place to talk about them:)!
(Rock Tumbling Hobby Forum: ( http://andy321.proboards.com/index.cgi )